Notebooks

 When I walked into the art gallery on the first day of my cloth journal workshop a couple months ago, someone handed me two bags of yarn. They were from the home of her partner's mother, who had recently passed away. Some members of her family were starting the process of going through her things. No one wanted the yarn, but this person said she knew someone who would and she brought it back for me. Inside one of the bags were two granny squares that this woman (I assume) had made. I set them aside and considered what to do with them. Then it dawned on me--duh!--I was tutoring a cloth journal class and my journal was dedicated to the textile and other work done by women from previous generations. I suspect that this woman was probably not older than me, or if she was then not by much, but I knew I'd add these squares to my journal. I decided to make a small notebook with them and then attach it to a page in the journal. 

I crocheted the squares together across one side, then cut some paper slightly smaller than the size of the attached squares side by side. I happened to have some heavy-ish, good quality blue paper, which belonged to the woman who knitted the sleeve I made into a journal page so I used that. I simply sewed it into the notebook with crochet thread and then sewed the back onto the journal page.

I used some of the yarn in the bags and some novelty yarns given to me by friends to make another notebook. First I wove two squares on my pin loom. On one square, I wove with some smooth acrylic and some novelty yarn and on the other I wove with the smooth acrylic and did some surface crochet with the green eyelash yarn. Then I crocheted a small yellow flower and sewed it on along with a plain button. Yellow and green are Donegal colors, so I think of this as my Donegal notebook. Inside I used some scraps of card stock and some mixed media paper.

i'm calling this the front

i'm calling this the back, but it really doesn't matter yet

Finally, I saw someone's tiny scrap cloth journal constructed in such a way that it kind of folds closed. I liked it, so I dashed off an experiment. I haven't finished the inside yet--I think I'm going to put paper inside, but I could change my mind. The one I saw was all fabric scraps and embellishments inside and out. I really like this format and will do a neater, more careful one soon, possibly woven or crocheted.

closed (the front embellishment was inside the button band of a shirt I got at a charity shop)

opened--the square in the middle is the back when the flaps are closed

partially closed (the flap on the left is the back of the front)

I brought all of these examples in to show the workshop participants so they could perhaps get some ideas for their own work, now or in future. I mentioned that these could be a fun way to add little photo albums to their journals. I suggested that if they have photos they can take photos of the photos and then they'd have digital copies that they could manipulate if they wanted or they could leave them as is. These could then be printed out at a pharmacy, many of which have kiosks where digital photos can be printed. Then either glue them to the notebook pages or used those little adhesive corners to stick the photos in. 

I do plan to make more of these. I will probably do collage in some but I plan to use them primarily for writing. It's possible that I'll do some combination of writing and photos as well. Who knows how they will evolve! I do know that they're fun to make and a great way to use scraps of stuff--yarn, cloth, paper, and more. And you know how I love to play with scraps 😏

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